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A rising Canadian track star won another title, a golfer seized a potential Paris spot and the country’s top beach volleyball tandem grabbed a silver. Here’s a look at the top performances over the weekend by Canada’s Olympic athletes:
Track and field: Christopher Morales Williams won another NCAA championship
In the span of just a few months, the teenage sprinter has risen from a virtual unknown to a possible Olympic medal contender. Morales Williams put himself on the map in February when he clocked the fastest indoor 400m time in history (it didn’t count as a world record because the starting blocks were not up to code). The 19-year-old University of Georgia sophomore went on to win the men’s 400m at the NCAA indoor championships before capturing the Southeastern Conference outdoor 400m title last month in 44.05 seconds — a Canadian record and still the fastest time by anyone in the world this year. On Friday night, Morales Williams added the NCAA outdoor 400m title with a time of 44.47 at the University of Oregon’s historic Hayward Field.
Canada’s Savannah Sutherland took silver in the women’s 400m hurdles on Saturday at the NCAA championships, lowering her own Canadian record for the second time in three days with a time of 53.26 seconds. Earlier in the week, Canadian Rowan Hamilton won the men’s hammer throw title.
At the pro level, shot putter Sarah Mitton continued her strong season with a victory at a World Athletics Continental Tour stop in New York City on Sunday. Mitton, who took silver at last year’s world championships, captured the indoor world title in March and has three top-three finishes on the Diamond League circuit in 2024.
In Para track, Canadian wheelchair racer Austin Smeenk broke a 400m world record for the second time in three days as he won gold at a meet in Switzerland on Sunday.
Golf: Adam Hadwin jumped into an Olympic spot
With his third-place finish at the Memorial (one of the PGA Tour’s lucrative “signature” events), Hadwin pocketed a cool $1.4 million US and overtook Corey Conners in the chase for Canada’s two entries in the Paris men’s event, which will be determined by the world rankings after this week’s U.S. Open.
Nick Taylor fell a couple of spots but remains the top Canadian at No. 32 after tying for 27th place at the Memorial. Hadwin shot up 24 spots to No. 35 while Conners fell one place to No. 46 after tying for 20th. Taylor Pendrith and Mackenzie Hughes are Nos. 65 and 66, respectively. They’re all playing the U.S. Open at Pinehurst, starting Thursday.
Hadwin and Taylor grew up together in Abbotsford, B.C., so it would be pretty neat to see them go to the Olympics with each other.
World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, with his wife and newborn son in tow, won the Memorial for his fifth victory of the year. The Masters champion will be the favourite at the U.S. Open, the Olympics and probably every other tournament he plays this season.
In women’s golf, Canada’s Brooke Henderson remained 14th in the world rankings after tying for 27th at the ShopRite LPGA Classic.
Tennis: Two Canadians earned Olympic spots after the French Open
The clay-court major was the last chance for players to improve their world rankings to qualify for the Paris Olympic events, which will also take place at Roland Garros. The top 56 on today’s list get a spot in the 64-player singles brackets, with a limit of four per country. The rest of the entries go to continental qualifiers, players from the host country and/or past Olympic or Grand Slam champions.
Men’s No. 18 Felix Auger-Aliassime and women’s No. 33 Leylah Fernandez are the only Canadians ranked in the top 100 in singles. Auger-Aliassime lost in the fourth round at the French Open to Alcaraz, while Fernandez fell in the third round to No. 8 seed Ons Jabeur. Other Canadians may join them in Paris as the doubles events (men’s, women’s and mixed) are easier to get into, though the qualifying process for those is pretty complicated. We’ll get Canada’s full list of Olympic tennis entries at a later date.
World No. 1 Iga Swiatek of Poland will be the overwhelming favourite to win the women’s gold after cruising to her third straight French Open title and fourth in five years on Saturday. Swiatek crushed 12th-seeded Jasmine Paolini of Italy 6-2, 6-1 in the women’s final.
The men’s event will be more wide open after Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz defeated Germany’s Alexander Zverev in the French Open final on Sunday for his third major title. The 21-year-old Alcaraz, now ranked No. 2 in the world, is the youngest man ever to collect a Grand Slam title on all three types of court surface (clay, grass and hard). He previously won the U.S. Open and Wimbledon.
Italy’s Jannik Sinner moved up to No. 1 today despite his loss to Alcaraz in the semifinals. Sinner took the top spot from Serbia’s Novak Djokovic, who fell to third after withdrawing from his quarterfinal due to a knee injury. Djokovic, 37, may skip next month’s Wimbledon to prepare for what might be his last shot at Olympic gold — pretty much the only thing the 24-time Grand Slam champ has not won.
Other notable results:
* Canada’s top beach volleyball duo of Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson took silver at a Beach Pro Tour Elite16 stop in the Czech Republic. The Olympics-bound pair moved up two spots to No. 4 in the world rankings after losing in the final to reigning world champions Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes of the United States, who are ranked third.
* Gymnast Ellie Black won her eighth career Canadian women’s all-around title and secured a trip to her fourth Olympics. Aurélie Tran will join her after taking silver at the Canadian championships in Ottawa, while the other three spots on the Canadian women’s team will be decided later. Félix Dolci and René Cournoyer earned spots on the men’s team after taking gold and silver, respectively, in the all-around.
* 2021 Olympic cyclist Derek Gee placed third in the Criterium du Dauphine, a warmup for next month’s Tour de France.
* The Paralympics-bound Canadian wheelchair rugby team finished sixth at the Canada Cup tournament in Richmond, B.C.
* The 12th-ranked Canadian men’s volleyball team beat the United States on Saturday in Ottawa before losing to Serbia on Sunday to fall to 4-4 in Nations League play this season. The 10th-ranked Canadian women’s team can join the men in Paris based on its world ranking following this week’s Nations League preliminary-round finale in Japan. With five spots available, Canada ranks fifth among teams who have not yet qualified. Watch Canada face Italy on Tuesday at 6:20 a.m. ET on CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem.
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